Conventionally, printing devices are known in which ink applied on an ink ribbon is transferred to a printing medium by controlling energization of heater elements provided to a thermal head based on a desired print pattern. Such a printing device is described in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2011-062896.
The temperature of the thermal head rises along with printing and in some cases, rises above the upper limit of the operation-guaranteed temperature. In order to prevent damage and/or defective operation due to heat to the thermal head in such a case, it is conceivable to lower the temperature of the thermal head by suspending the printing in the middle of printing.
However, printing is performed with the thermal head and the printing medium being in contact. Therefore, suspension of printing in the middle of printing may lead to resultant print blurred or collapsed, thereby deteriorating the print quality. Moreover, suspension of printing in the middle of printing may cause unevenness such as slight difference in density between when printing is suspended and when printing is resumed, thereby deteriorating the print quality from this viewpoint.
A conceivable countermeasure is to separate the thermal head and the printing medium while printing is suspended in the middle of printing. However, separating the thermal head and the printing medium may cause a gap and/or a shift in the resultant print when printing is resumed, eventually deteriorating the print quality. Moreover, it is also conceivable to change the configuration of the printing device so that the thermal head and the printing medium are separated and no gap or shift occurs in the print. However, such a change in the configuration complicates the configuration of a printing device.